The Sky Is Angry
by Speedy1236
Summary: Knuckles, Tails and a moment of wary calm before the storm. Or, Team Sonic make their way to Final Fortress, and Knuckles realizes Tails is scared of storms. - Fluffish, sort of a missing scene for Sonic Heroes


**The Sky Is Angry**

From their spot atop a protruding platform near the front of the airship they were currently on, the next in line was a good deal away. Too far to jump for Sonic, too far to fly for Tails, and it seemed risky and overall a bad idea to try and reach it in one of those triangle dive glides they'd improvised over the course of the last day's mad chase through various zones, or by using one of those weird Sonic spin charged propellers.

Knuckles studied the sky ahead. The wind had picked up considerably, the sharp, capricious gusts of a nearing storm front. He could see it, too, the dark columns of clouds towering up before them. It would be insanity to try a glide in that. He'd loath to try by himself, not to mention while carrying his friends along.

"That doesn't look good..." Tails' voice was small, like he was unsure if he wanted to make a negative point, so close to the goal.

"Don't worry, buddy. It's just a little thunder and lightning." Sonic dropped down to the platform from the roof of the structure behind them.

"It's the wind that's gonna be trouble long before we get to see thunder and lightning," Knuckles noticed. Even here, it was tugging quite sharply on his quills. "No way we can glide that."

When the echidna threw a look over at Sonic, the hedgehog's face wore a rare frown as he took in the chasm of darkening sky between their airship and the one up ahead. "You know, maybe we can snatch a ride on something then. The robots have gliders and smaller balloons and mini-airships." He tapped a foot. "I'm gonna go look!"

Sonic was gone in a flash of blue, before Knuckles had chance to put a word in, the tug of _that_ wind becoming familiar by now, too. It settled as quickly as Sonic had left, leaving the echidna alone with the little fox.

There was no sense in running after Sonic. Instead, it would have to be talking the hedgehog out of the most insane ideas. After a trip taken out of a honest to chaos _cannon_, Knuckles wasn't fond of making do with many more ideas Sonic had about getting from one place to another...

But right now, there was nothing he could do about it but wait, and the echidna went back to look at the looming thunderstorm up ahead. It was closing in rapidly; the wind already carried the scent of nearby rain. The dimming sky underneath the dark clouds looked fuzzy with trails of rain falling below it. As Knuckles watched, the first flash of lightning tore through the wall of clouds, a sharp, quick sting of light. The thunder followed a couple seconds later.

Instinctively Knuckles listened for its echo in the Master Emerald's energy field, for a second confusedly grappled with the distance of it, before conscious knowledge won over instinct, but it was safe, far away out of danger's reach, for now. Would stay so if they could stop Eggman.

Up ahead, the second thunder crashed through the sky and next to Knuckles, Tails winced.

He couldn't have really been startled, not by a second blow. Knuckles pulled his attention away from the sky for a moment to really look at Tails. The fox's ears were tipped down and back, flattening against his head, the twin tails agitatedly twirling behind his back, and the look of the bright blue eyes was warily skimming across the cloud columns.

"It's still quite a bit of distance," Knuckles noticed. "We aren't really in range of any lightning or hail or anything yet. I can tell."

He really could. As much as he disliked those airships with all their mad robots and technology and noise, the view up here, the high altitude, that was familiar for someone who'd grown up on a Floating Island. After the madness of Casino Park's flashing neon lights, after giant cities and spooked castles turning upside down, being up here was almost a relief.

"I know," Tails said, still more quietly than was normal. "It's just... I don't like storms. I don't like _being_ _in_ storms."

Knuckles took another brief look over at this particular storm at the next clap of thunder rolling their way. "Nobody in their right mind likes being in storms."

Unexpectedly, this drew a quick chuckle from his young friend. "Sonic says they're fun. He goes outside to see the lightning and hear the thunder."

Knuckles stared at Tails. "That's an odd thing to do, moreso for someone who makes such a fuss about getting even a single quill wet."

The fox snorted. "You tell him that."

"Sure." Knuckles grinned. He had no qualms at all to make fun of Sonic for once. It wasn't that the hedgehog left out many chances to make fun of him and his habits.

But Tails wasn't laughing; he'd trained the wary look that he'd levelled at the storm front at Knuckles now. "Do _you_ like storms?"

"I just said I don't, didn't I?" The echidna frowned. "Really, who in all the skies with a single bit of sense left would think _this_ -" He waved a hand vaguely at the bad weather ahead. "- would be a good omen or even fun weather to go outside?"

Tails didn't answer; he just looked mildly confused, then was distracted from his looking at Knuckles like one of his science problems by a new, louder and closer boom of thunder.

The guardian too returned to watching the sky, judging the swirls at the edges of the clouds that spoke of turbulent winds, the ways the lightning would reflect differently from the tops and bottoms of the clouds. Heavy rain at least, maybe hail near the tops, too. He tried to compare their level of flight to the altitude of the clouds, trying to figure where they'd hit. It was harder here, without the ground beneath his feet thrumming with chaos energy that directly responded to him.

Somewhere towards the middle, Knuckles finally concluded. If they were lucky, they'd stay free of the hail at least.

He was considering to inform Tails of this conclusion, but before he got the chance to, a bright flash of lightning sparked right at the edge of the front, painting a sharp zigzag pattern against the nearly black cloud and striking one of the airships ahead with an ear shattering crash.

Tails _jumped_.

This wasn't wariness, Knuckles realized. This was fear. He cast a look around for Sonic, who was clearly more experienced to handle something like that, but the hedgehog was nowhere to be seen.

Figured. Knuckles bit his lip, casting about for something to distract Tails. He needed until the next growl of thunder, this one distant and without a visible flash of light to accompany it, but something about the sound pulled the old words from his memory.

"The sky is angry."

Tails blinked, but the blue eyes went from staring at the sky to staring at Knuckles. "Huh?"

"It's what the old people said, about storms like this one. The sky is angry."

The little fox took just a quick peek over at the storm clouds. "I can see why. It does look angry... Especially from so close to it, and at eye level." He cut himself off, one of those large ears swiveling back forward in something like curiosity. "That's it, right? Eye level."

Now it was Knuckles' turn to stare. "What?"

"You don't think it's weird to be scared of storms."

Knuckles shrugged. "There are... less sensible things to be scared of, I guess."

Tails nodded, like Knuckles was proving some kind of point. "Because to you, and your ancestors, I guess, your culture at large maybe, a storm didn't look like it does from somewhere down on the surface. It looks like here, I mean, when you're on Angel Island. The worst of it is as high as your ground level. You look a storm right in the eye."

"Yeah, I guess." Part of Knuckles was proud of himself for having apparently succeeded in distracting Tails. The rest of him wasn't quite sure what the fox was getting at, but that at least was familiar by now.

And Tails was already a step ahead of him again. "But you're not."

"What?"

"Afraid of storms. At least, you don't look it." Tails curiously looked Knuckles up and down once, presumably searching for telltale signs of fear of lightning? "Or you're great at hiding it. In that case, I'm jealous."

Knuckles smirked. He liked to think he was good at hiding it if he was scared, to show it was far too much of a liability for a guardian, but... He let his gaze sweep across the towering clouds. "No. I'm not scared."

"Because you've been in a hundred storms up there on your island, always right in the middle of the worst? Because you got used to it?" Tails has tilted his head at him. "Were you scared as a child?"

Knuckles frowned. "I don't remember. I don't know if I used to be scared." He went back to looking at the incoming weather. "_Wary_. I'm wary. It's dangerous, but it's not evil. It's nature. Chaos, too."

"I guess." Another thunderclap rang, closer yet, and Tails suddenly was right next to Knuckles. "I don't know why _I_ am scared," he admitted. "I don't remember ever not being scared. Sonic doesn't think it's weird... I'm glad you're not gonna make fun of me, either. Are you?"

"I won't." Knuckles didn't move from his spot, let Tails' shoulder lightly lean against his own. "You know, it's kinda good to know I'll just have to look out for _one_ idiot who doesn't know when to be careful. It's bad enough he forgets he's the one of us who can't fly; I don't even want to know how he'll try to kill himself in that kind of weather."

Surprisingly, Tails laughed. "All sorts of ways neither of us can currently imagine."

"That much is clear," Knuckles agreed.

For a moment, silence fell about them. The lower half of the sky ahead was growing blurry with rain.

"We'll be okay," the guardian said then. "Just, look out for the gusts when you're in the air. If you feel like one is gonna carry you off, make yourself small. Might be safer to fall down out of it." He swept a look down Tails' form. Knuckles himself had to take care with his gliding spines, to not catch an uncalled for draft, probably something similar went for his friend's tails? "Or grab something. If nothing else is in reach, grab Sonic." He tried a grin.

Tails even almost grinned back. "Right, he's streamlined; he doesn't get caught by a breeze as easily as you or me."

And that almost made sense, didn't it, how Sonic, who ran faster than any storm, didn't need to bother, but it was Tails and him, built for flying and gliding who were vulnerable, for whom it made sense to be wary?

"Thanks." Tails' sudden word tore Knuckles out of his thoughts. "I'm glad you're here."

The echidna smiled.

Whatever he'd have thought up in terms of answer however was lost in the commotion of Sonic's sudden return.

"Yo, hey, don't just stand there, look at what I found!"

Warily, and wasn't that the emotion of the moment indeed, Knuckles turned around - and stared. "You cannot be serious."

Sonic was lugging along, tethered to a rope like some kind of misfit kite, one of the small airships that looked like some wild cross of elonganted hot air balloon and some sort of aircraft with flimsy wings mounted below. Like others of the type they had already encountered, this one had apparently carried both robots and weapons, though neither remained now. The tiny "cabin" was empty, and the weapon ports under the wings faintly trailed smoke from where Sonic must've smashed the rocket launchers off. It didn't look like it was in any danger of blowing right up on them, to be fair, but it was small and light and was already getting jostled by every blow of wind coming this way.

Sonic raised a brow at him and Tails. "Oh, come _on_. It's the best I could find." He threw a short, but sharp look towards the next airship up ahead. "It's like only a few kilometres. We'll be over in a minute."

"Does that thing even have propulsion? We'll have to go against the wind." Tails slowly walked around Sonic's acquisition.

"It has a propeller at the back, and it works, too." Sonic waved a hand at the thing. "Even _Egg Pawns_ can fly them. I brought the best pilot on Mobius along, and a guy who's probably the number one expert on high altitude weather. This should be a cinch."

Knuckles stared at the hedgehog. He couldn't have possibly heard their conversation, so it was a thought he'd come up with by himself, unprompted. The echidna shook his head. Any time he thought he was about to figure Sonic out, he turned around and did something entirely unexpected.

Unpredictable.

Chaos.

"Come on, those were compliments!" Sonic again tugged at the tether of his airship. "It'll be fun! We'll be surfing the storm!"

"Surfing," Knuckles echoed.

Sonic shrugged. "Why, yes. Make a better suggestion."

"I'm not surfing on that thing," Tails cut in. He was gazing up at the small airship from below its helm. "_But_ I'm gonna ride in it."

Sonic, who'd looked disappointed at the start, brightened like Tails was going to do him a big favour, like he was really looking forward to flying that thing and was happy Tails agreed to come. "Way to go!"

Knuckles for his part took in the way the small craft bucked with every gust and how the shiny metal hull reflected every bright flash of lightning. "It's made from metal," he noticed.

Tails nodded at him. "Yes, and that's good. As long as we're inside, we'll be safe. It's a Faraday cage."

Knuckles sighed. He wasn't even going to make the mistake and ask what that meant. If Tails, scared of storms, was going to fly in that thing, it couldn't be quite as insane. "Fine. You think you can land it over there? I don't see any wheels, and the air is gonna be real turbulent."

"We'll probably have to hop off, catch a rail to grind or something. We'll manage." Sonic was still smiling, still so utterly unconcerned. It was somehow equally encouraging and maddening.

Seeking the support of a saner person, Knuckles' eyes caught on Tails, who shrugged at him. Knuckles brushed back his long spines. "You think we'll have to wing it and look out for the idiot who can't fly?"

The fox grinned. "I guess?" He looked uncertain still, but standing between Sonic and Knuckles, it was closer to "wary" than "scared".

Sonic for his part didn't seem to mind being called an idiot this once, the hedgehog's entire attention seemed on Tails for that moment, and if it wouldn't be such a weird time and place for it, Knuckles would've thought the expression on Sonic's face was something between pride and hope.

Knuckles shrugged, focusing back on Tails, too. "Fine," he repeated. "_Hop on_ then; I'm right behind you."

Tails did "hop on", spinning tails lifting him effortlessly into the cabin, but he was quick to turn back to offer a hand up to the echidna standing below. "I know you are, and I'm glad."

Knuckles returned the smile as he was hoisted aboard before proceeding to pull the last of his friends up into the airship's cabin as well. "So, I hear we're surfing the storm now. Then surf away, hedgehog."

Sonic grinned. "Aye, Sir! I'll start the engines. Tails, do your piloting magic. Knux, if you know any ancient spells to tame a storm, please feel free."

Knuckles dumbly blinked at the hedgehog for a second, but it turned out he didn't need to come up with a reply to _that_, because Sonic had already disappeared towards the back of the craft. A moment later, the rumble of engines joined the growl and howl of the storm.

"Here we go," Sonic shouted from somewhere behind a machine just out of Knuckles' sight. "Eggman won't know what hit him!"

That much was probably true. Knuckles exchanged a bemused look with Tails, who grinned back at him, anxiety at the storm calmed by Sonic's openly displayed utter lack of worry, or sufficiently distracted by the task of piloting this hijacked ship.

For a moment Knuckles watched him pull and push at the controls, but he seemed sure of himself as ever, and the echidna returned to gaze into the dark, thundering clouds ahead. Sonic reappeared at his side, but was quiet for now, and together they watched the gloomy sky.

"It'll take more than a bit of bad weather to stop us," Sonic said then, and unexpectedly Knuckles found a fierce grin on his own face.

"You bet."

This mad plan of world domination needed stopping, someone would need to look out for little Tails, scared of storms but heading right into the heart of one, and look out for Sonic, too, who tended to forget he couldn't fly.

Well, Knuckles thought, he spent his days guarding the eye of calm balance in the storm of the world's chaos. He should be able to keep those two out of the worst trouble, even on a day the sky was angry.

Sonic's elbow nudged Knuckles' side, softly, just enough to wordlessly get his attention, and pointed at Tails, who was holding the airship's oversized excuse for a steering wheel with both hands, blue eyes narrowed sharply at the storm. At least for the moment, he looked more determined than scared.

Leaning close enough to Knuckles' head that he could be heard over the howling winds whipping about their aircraft, Sonic almost whispered into the storm tussled quills above his ears. "I have no idea what you did, but thank you."

Knuckles raised a brow at him. He'd not really done anything, and certainly not for Sonic's benefit, but then, in some way he was starting to understand the hedgehog's protectiveness of the youngest member of their team.

He looked back at Tails, and a smile tugged on his own lips even as he turned back to Sonic for a near whisper of his own in reply. "You're welcome."


End file.
